You Were the Perfect Storm
by ayrabelle
Summary: A collection of my Klance soulmate AU stories. Each chapter is a different one-shot, the chapter titles are the story titles. These are organized as individual stories in a series on AO3, depending on how you prefer to read them.
1. Every Open Eye

Keith got his first soul-tat when he was 13 years old.

He was being introduced to his newest foster family, and shook all of their hands. As soon as Keith's hand came into contact with Shiro's, they both felt the platonic soulmate tattoo forming. Shiro already had one, so he knew what was going on but Keith could do nothing but stare at the Gemini constellation on his left arm in wonder.

Well, Shiro's parents weren't just going to let him disappear into the system after that.

Soul-tats appeared when you touched the person you are meant to have the bond with. You could have met the person and spoken to them for a year, but if you managed to never touch the other person then you'd never be the wiser. There were stories of people fighting through a crowd only to discover a new soul-tat and an impossible task of finding out just who that was supposed to match.

Most people had two types of soulmates: romantic and platonic. And platonic soulmates were surprisingly common – often people would have 3-4 of those. Keith made it through high school with exactly one soulmate, and he didn't want any more. Soulmate Tattoos, or soul-tats, created a cohesive tattoo once you met all of your soulmates, so it was obvious that Keith hadn't met more than one. Shiro was all he needed, though – his adoptive brother was his best friend.

This mentality would be put to the test, however, when he moved away from home to attend college. Shiro was busy with his job and his recently-discovered romantic soulmate, and Keith knew exactly no one at his new school. He was given a scholarship to play soccer, so at least he would be forced out of his dorm room on a regular basis.

* * *

Lance loved football. He had been playing since he was in second grade, so he wasn't surprised to get a scholarship for college. It was only made better by the fact that Pidge and Hunk, two of his platonic soulmates, would be going to the same school as he was. He was even going to be rooming with Hunk, though he had to move in first because of practice.

His first practice with the entire team was the week before classes started, and that was where he met Keith. Coran, their eccentric coach with the bushiest mustache that Lance had ever seen, had them all pass a ball around a circle and introduce themselves.

"I'm Lance!" he told them all when he had his turn. "I'm majoring in theater and I like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain." He gave his laughing teammates a wink and kicked the ball over to the boy that he noticed hadn't said a word yet.

Keith blinked in surprise when the lanky boy sent the ball his way, but stopped it expertly in front of himself. "Um, I'm Keith. I'm majoring in astrophysics." He paused when he heard an impressed whistle sound through the crowd. "And, uh, my brother works for NASA." He never knew what to say about himself so he deflected the attention to Shiro and quickly sent the ball away across the circle of players.

Coran, however, saw through that and called him out before the next person could speak. "That's great, Keith, but you're supposed to tell us something about yourself – not your family."

Keith huffed out a breath. "Then, I guess I was the leading scorer on my team all 4 years of high school?" There were more murmurs at that, but Keith didn't care – he focused on his teammate with the ball and hoped that the bonding exercise would finish up already.

Lance missed the next introduction because he was staring at Keith. What a showoff. Lance knew that he had to beat him to the starting roster.

* * *

Lance's plan was put to a halt when the starting lineup was announced and he was a sub.

Keith let himself have a small grin when he saw that he was starting.

Both boys went to their phones immediately.

 **Lancelot:** UGH  
 **Lancelot:** He's a starter  
 **Lancelot:** I'm just a sub  
 **Pidgeot:** The world is ending  
 **Lancelot:** I am demoting your soulmate status  
 **Hunkules:** I'll make us some comfort cookies – wanna help?  
 **Lancelot:** Hunk, my man, you know the way to my heart. See, Pidge? This is how it's done.  
 **Pidgeot:** Eh, you'll still share the cookies with me.  
 **Hunkules:** Come on over!

 **Lil Bro:** I'm a starter!  
 **Big Bro:** Way to go! I knew you could do it.  
 **Lil Bro:** Thanks, Shiro.  
 **Big Bro:** So how do you like the team?  
 **Lil Bro:** It's a cool group. But there's one guy who seems to really not like me.  
 **Big Bro:** What did you do?  
 **Lil Bro:** Why do you assume I did something?  
 **Big Bro:** Keith, how long have I known you?  
 **Lil Bro:** But this time I really don't think I did anything…  
 **Big Bro:** Wanna talk?

As Keith was walking back from the dining hall and talking to Shiro, he passed the dorm kitchen and smelled something baking. Curious, he poked his head in the door. His teammate Lance was there with two people that he assumed were Lance's friends. There was a big guy and a small girl, and the big guy noticed Keith.

"Hey!" he greeted. "Want a cookie?"

Keith was surprised by the offer – he didn't even know the guy. "Uh, no thanks. I was just walking past and it smelled really good."

The guy's face lit up. "Thanks! If you change your mind, I'm in room 204."

Keith nodded. "Thanks," he replied, before leaving and closing the door behind him. Once he was gone, Lance rounded on his friend.

"What the heck? You can't go around offering cookies to my rival!"

Hunk looked at him, confused. "That was Keith? But he seemed so nice."

Lance just shook his head. "Yes that was Keith. And now he knows what room I'm in! Who knows what he'll do!"

Pidge scoffed at Lance. "My dude, from the precisely 15 seconds that I've seen Keith he really doesn't seem like he cares about this rivalry that you claim to have going with him. He complimented Hunk's baking and didn't even look at you."

Lance huffed and took a bite of cookie to avoid having to respond.

* * *

The day before their first game, the team played a scrimmage during practice. Lance was playing on the opposite team as Keith, and he hated to admit it but Keith was really good. Even watching from the sidelines didn't prepare him for what it would be like to play against the man.

The two teams were tied up at one goal apiece when Rolo, the keeper on Keith's team, launched the ball across the pitch and Keith went running after it. He went up for a header, but missed the ball and instead clashed heads with Lance who was doing the same thing.

They both fell to the ground and groaned. Keith gripped his head in his hands and laid curled up on his right side, seeing stars behind his eyelids. Lance simply laid prone on the ground, not even wanting to move to grip his head. Their teammates were talking, and Keith slowly became aware of what they were saying.

"I've never seen a soul-tat like that." "The two of them?" "Well, this is a first for me."

Wondering what they were talking about, Keith slowly opened his eyes. Ignoring the stabbing pain at the back of his head, he looked past the color on his arm to where the rest of the team was looking at the two of them.

Wait. Color?

Keith sat up quickly as his head swam and looked at the colorful tattoo that decorated his entire left arm from hand to shoulder. It was beautiful, but it confused Keith. Most soul-tats were smaller – this was an entire nebula of stars and cosmic dust. All he could do was stare at it in surprise before Lance swore and rolled over.

Looking up now, Lance could see that his teammates were talking about him. Wondering why, he tilted his head to ask Keith but paused when he saw that there was a colorful tattoo decorating the man's entire left arm.

Oh no.

Lance sat up quickly and didn't even pause to wonder if he was concussed before pulling off his shirt to look at his back. His platonic soul-tats were on his shoulders, so he had often wondered how they would be connected. He twisted as much as he could – which wasn't much but that was enough to confirm that he had a new soul-tat that connected his platonics and spanned his entire back. He looked back to Keith to ask what it looked like but the man was staring at Lance in shock. That was when Lance's brain caught up and realized that he had basically started stripping in the middle of the pitch during practice. Before he could make a bigger fool of himself, Coran stepped in.

"I think you boys both need to get inside and see the trainers for your heads."

Keith nodded mutely and stood, reaching a hand down to help Lance. The shirtless boy blinked in surprise but took it and they walked to the locker rooms in silence. They both sat down, not yet going to see the trainer.

"Can," Lance broke the silence. "Can we start over?" He didn't want to be in his soulmate's bad books, no matter what they had been like before their discovery.

Keith looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"Like this. Hi, I'm Lance. I'm a freshman majoring in theater and I'm 18 and two of my platonic soulmates are my best friends." Lance stuck out his hand, and Keith still didn't know what was going on but it seemed to matter to Lance so he shook it.

"Uh hi Lance, I'm Keith. I've only got one platonic soulmate and that's my brother, but I'm 18 and majoring in astrophysics."

"It looks like you'll be getting another platonic," Lance said, releasing Keith's hand and lightly touching a spot on his arm. "There's a blank space right here."

Keith had to twist his arm in an unnatural position to see it, but sure enough there was some of his natural skin color poking through the nebula on his tricep. "Huh."

Lance snorted. "That's all you have to say?"

Keith shrugged. "I never thought I'd even meet a romantic soulmate, so what's one more platonic."

Lance peered at Keith curiously at that, but didn't want to scare him away with any more personal questions. "Would you mind taking a picture of mine?" he asked instead. "I can't see it all since it's on my back."

Keith nodded and retrieved his phone from his locker. There was a text from Shiro – and Keith idly wondered how his brother would react when he heard the news as he opened up his camera. Lance still hadn't put a shirt on since he took it off on the pitch, so Keith snapped a quick picture and showed it to Lance.

Lance could feel his face light up. His soul-tat now covered his entire back from his neck to his shorts. It was a flower vine with calaveras and flowers that wove intricately together up and down his back and he could spot his platonic soul-tats at the top, beautifully included. Without pausing to think, he quickly texted the picture to himself and handed Keith his phone back.

"I just sent it to myself," he explained, suddenly realizing what that entailed. "So, uh, I guess you have my number now."

Keith could feel heat rising in his neck, so he just nodded and put his phone back before mumbling something about seeing the trainer and fleeing the scene. It turned out he didn't have a concussion, luckily enough since he had a game to play the following day. When he returned to the main room, the rest of the team was there and he nodded to his fellow starters that he would be alright and ready to go.

* * *

Back in his room, Keith collapsed on his bed and dug out his phone. He hadn't texted Shiro yet, and he couldn't put it off anymore.

 **Lil Bro:** Apparently the guy on my team that hated me is my romantic soulmate.

Keith had just set his phone down and was contemplating just how much energy he wanted to put into getting changed out of his sweaty practice clothes when his phone rang.

"Yo."

"He's your what?" Shiro wasn't one to yell but Keith had to pull his phone away from his ear at the vehemence of his brother's reaction.

"Did you not read the text?"

"I read it, I'm just not sure I believe it."

Keith breathed a laugh. "Well, apparently we're Meant to Be. I now have a tattoo over my entire left arm and his back is completely covered."

"Ok, I want to hear everything."

Across campus, Lance walked into his room to see Hunk and Pidge sitting on the couch and betting on what the emergency was this time. Lance had sent them a text to meet him there after practice, and he appreciated that they were both there even if they didn't seem to believe that it was an actual emergency.

 **Lancelot:** SOS MEET ME IN MY ROOM AFTER PRACTICE THIS IS NOT A DRILL

"I'm thinking that he got stuck on his homework."

"Nah, I bet that he just realized that we have a test next week." Pidge liked to act like she had neither faith nor cares for Lance but he knew better by now.

"No!" he exclaimed. "I got another soul-tat."

"I thought that you said that we were enough for you," Pidge pointed out.

"Well, us and your brother," Hunk amended, including Lance's other platonic soulmate.

Rather than try and explain, Lance just took off his shirt and spun around so that they could see his back. Two gasps were all that he heard, and Lance spun back around to face them.

"I've never seen anything so extensive," Pidge observed, scientific as always. "What could that mean?"

Lance shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. But you'll never guess who it is!"

"Keith," Pidge replied immediately. Hunk looked like he didn't want to say it out loud but agreed. Lance glared at them.

"He is basically the only thing that you've been talking about for the past couple weeks," Hunk said. "I'd be more surprised if it wasn't him."

Lance groaned and threw himself into his bed, face first. This left his back open for examination, though, and he could feel Pidge poking at the calaveras.

"How'd you two find out?" Hunk asked.

Lance sat up, excited to tell the story. He always loved a good story. "Well, we were in the middle of practice."

* * *

There wasn't much of a crowd at the game, but men's soccer wasn't the most popular sport at the university so no one expected one. Keith did see some familiar faces, though, and smiled when he waved to Shiro and Allura, Shiro's romantic soulmate. They waved back enthusiastically, and then Keith was in his zone. It was time to play.

Lance couldn't help but stare at Keith as he watched the match from the sideline. His soul-tat was stunning, and it was constantly drawing his eyes away from the ball to wherever his soulmate happened to be standing. It wasn't until the first half's stoppage time that Keith managed to break through the other team's defense and score. Their entire team was yelling, and Keith seemed surprised when they celebrated with him. Lance wondered what his high school team had been like that he hadn't expected his team to celebrate a goal with him.

In the second half, Lance's staring had to stop – he was sent in to the match partway through. He was nervous, but Keith caught his eye and grinned in welcome and Lance instantly felt his confidence return. He could even hear Hunk and Pidge yelling at him from the stands – he smiled for them.

The other team had scored so it was tied up with 5 min left when Keith got the ball in a breakaway. Lance followed – his long legs letting him catch up fairly quickly and he called for the ball when the defender fell behind and he had an opening. Rather than pass, Keith took a shot that rebounded off the keeper and Lance was lucky that the ball rolled right to him. He fired another shot and it sailed past the keeper into the back of the net.

Lance jumped up, and Keith couldn't help his swell of pride. He ran over to where his teammates were surrounding Lance and clapped him on the shoulder with a smile. Lance looked radiantly happy, and Keith hadn't even wanted a romantic soulmate coming into college but now he wouldn't want anyone else.

* * *

After the match, Keith was walking back towards campus with Shiro and Allura when he heard someone calling his name. He paused and spun to see Lance walking to meet them with his two friends on either side.

"Hey, I wanted to introduce you to my friends. This is Hunk and Pidge," Lance said, pointing to the big guy on his left and the smaller girl on his right respectively.

Keith nodded to both and returned the favor. "This is Shiro and Allura."

Once everyone had greeted each other, they all walked together towards campus. Lance walked next to Keith while Shiro and Allura struck up an easy conversation with Hunk and Pidge.

"Hey, I was wondering something," Lance began. He tried not to sound too awkward or defensive about it, but he really didn't know how Keith was going to take it. "Why didn't you pass me the ball on that breakaway? I had a clear shot and no one around me. Did you think I couldn't do it, or something?"

Keith blinked and shook his head quickly. "No, of course not! I'm… I'm just used to my team not really liking me or being that good so I had to take on most of the burden myself," he explained, looking away.

Lance took a moment to think about that, wondering even more what his high school team had been like, but before he could respond Shiro had pulled Keith into the other conversation.

"You two need to talk," he said, shoving Keith towards Pidge. Keith had no idea why, so he just turned to Pidge.

"Yo."

She nodded back. "Hey. I was just telling Shiro about how he really shouldn't just blindly believe everything NASA tells him."

Keith shook his head. "Good luck with that. I've been trying for years to get him to take us to Nevada so I can use his clearance to get into Area 51 and see what they're hiding but he insists it's nothing."

Pidge's face lit up. "It can't be nothing. They won't let anyone in – and whenever I hack into the satellites they're always moving huge crates all over. What could those be?"

Lance groaned and moved over to Shiro. "What have you done?" he asked mournfully, pointing towards where Pidge and Keith were chatting animatedly about aliens and conspiracies.

Shiro smiled. "Hey, I just wanted to give him someone else to talk about these things with – after 5 years it gets a little old."

Lance laughed and looked over in time to see Pidge and Keith fist bump as expressions of surprise came over their faces.

Keith had gotten his first soul-tat 5 years prior, and then his most recent came when his mind was more concerned about his head injury than anything going on with his skin. When he gave a fist bump to Pidge after they decided that they were going to steal Shiro's badge and run away to Nevada together, a tingling sensation danced across his left arm where the blank spot in his nebula was. Confused, he twisted his arm to see that it had been filled in with the constellation Hydra. Pidge was also examining her soul-tat and looked up with a wicked grin. He couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Nice."

* * *

The day after their first match was a Sunday, and coach gave them all the day off of practice. Pidge was in Hunk and Lance's room and the two of them were doing homework while Lance sat on the couch. He knew that he should be doing homework, but instead he messed with his phone – looking at the lock screen and then putting it down, opening it up only to close it right back.

"You can invite him over," Hunk said, looking over from his homework on his desk.

"I dunno – I don't want to make it weird," Lance protested, somewhat half-heartedly. He wouldn't mind having some time to get to talk with his romantic soulmate.

Pidge sighed from her post at Lance's desk. "This is why we can't have nice things, you toaster waffle. Just text your boyfriend. Or I'll hack into your phone and send it for you."

Lance balked. "He's not my boyfriend! I barely even know the guy."

"So invite him over so that you can get to know him." Hunk didn't even bother to look up this time.

When Lance still didn't move to send a text, Pidge got up and moved to grab his phone. This spurred Lance into action and he quickly unlocked his phone to send a message and ward off Pidge's threat.

 **Lance:** Hey, what are you up to?  
 **Star Boy:** Nothing really.  
 **Lance:** Wanna hang with me and Hunk and Pidge?  
 **Star Boy:** Sure. Room 204, right?  
 **Lance:** Yup!

"He's coming over," Lance informed the duo, not looking up to see their smug looks.

"Excellent," Pidge responded. "I found a new website that I want to see if he's seen."

Lance shared a look with Hunk – they were both glad that Pidge had found someone else to talk about her conspiracies with.

As Keith walked to room 204, he wondered what would be expected of him. He knew that he needed to talk about the whole soulmate thing with Lance, but he wasn't sure when would be the time to do that. Shiro and Allura had immediately started dating, but Keith wasn't much of a people person so he didn't want to go that route. He wasn't sure whether Lance would even like him, much less want to potentially date him.

Before he could come to anything resembling a conclusion, he was knocking on the door and it flew open to reveal Pidge. Lance was standing in the background like Pidge beat him to the door and she pulled Keith over to her laptop.

"Have you seen this website?"

Keith looked at her screen and nodded. "Yeah – they're alright. They've got some good info on cryptids but their moon landing section is shit."

Pidge nodded sagely. "Good to know. Thanks!"

Keith smiled in reply before he was dragged to the couch by Lance. Lance had been grateful for the immediate distraction – he had never seen Keith with his hair down and Lance did not want to acknowledge the giddiness that sight inspired in him. Keith seemed surprised about being pulled over, so Lance started talking.

"Don't worry, I just don't want Pidge to steal all of your time here. Did you bring any homework or anything?"

Keith shook his head. "Nah, I'm done already."

Pidge looked over in shock. "Even with that Physics assignment from Hell? You walnut."

Keith blinked at her. "Uh, I'm allergic to walnuts?"

She nodded sagely, like this was important and valid information for the conversation. "I see. Lance, you've just been demoted. Keith is the toaster waffle, you're a walnut."

Lance sputtered, affronted. "What? How can you take away my status like that?" He wasn't even sure if there was a hierarchy, but Hunk shrugged at him so he just rolled with it. He looked over and Keith was just as confused but Pidge had gone back to her homework so they moved on.

They chatted about classes and favorite teams for a little bit – Keith only watched Premier League and was a huge Arsenal fan while Lance stuck to MLS and followed his Colorado Rapids religiously. Eventually, Pidge and Hunk left to pick up dinner and Keith took a deep breath.

"Hey, Lance. What are you expecting from this?" He gestured vaguely between the two of them, and thankfully Lance understood what he was trying to say.

"I dunno." Lance shrugged. "Did you have any expectations or anything?"

Keith shook his head. "No, I just… Like, you always hear stories about how couples go straight into dating and that's great for them but I don't think I'm ready for that. I mean, we're both freshmen and we barely know each other."

Lance nodded in understanding. He wouldn't have minded getting to date Keith, but he was a hopeless romantic at heart and didn't want to ruin his chances with the pretty boy that Fate had decided to match him up with.

"That's cool. We can start here and see where life takes us. Friends?" Lance stuck out his hand, and Keith smiled when he shook it.

"Friends."


	2. but it's not enough

It wasn't that Keith was antisocial. He really wasn't. But he never knew what to say to other people so he simply didn't say anything. And then faded to the background and was either ignored or forgotten.

He was used to it by now.

 **7 years, 290 days**

The first time two of his classmates discovered that they were soulmates, the entire class had gathered around the duo to see their soul-tats. People generally got their first soul-tats after they turned ten, so it was a new thing for all of the students. There was lots of poking and commenting, but Keith held back. He wondered what it would be like to have a soulmate. The people he grew close to always left him alone after all, so he had no reason to suspect that a soulmate would be any different.

 **7 years, 289 days through 6 years, 148 days**

As more and more peers started discovering their platonic soulmates, Keith continued to get shunted to the side. He had yet to gain a soul-tat, and he told himself that he didn't care. The time he didn't spend with friends or family just gave him more time to read. He tended to spend all of his free time at whatever public library was closest, only returning to his foster homes right before curfew. He found friends in between the pages and despised going to school with every fiber of his being. The bullies tended not to listen to him speaking, so he had taken to using his fists to respond to them. It may not be what his social worker or the teachers or his foster families would prefer, but it did get his point across.

Besides, he didn't care about getting detention. He knew that he would just be shifted to a new family and a new school soon, he was always being sent away so it didn't matter what these teachers thought of him.

 **6 years, 147 days**

His first day of seventh grade was no different. In Literature Arts, his teacher introduced herself with a smile (and Keith promptly forgot her name) before she asked one question.

"Is there anyone here that doesn't have a soul-tat?"

Keith was sitting in the back corner, so he could see that he was the only one to raise his hand. The teacher blinked at him in surprise, which caused the rest of the class to look at him as well. He stared at a spot above the teacher's head, not wanting to look at anyone.

"Oh, well I suppose you're excluded from this assignment then, Mr Park. Everyone else, I want you to write me a story about the time you met your first soulmate. I want to feel like I'm there. This will give me the chance to assess your writing styles and get to know a little more about you."

From there she moved on and Keith understood that she didn't care to get to know him – she didn't want anything of his.

 **6 years, 32 days**

Christmas Day. Santa Claus didn't come to group homes, so it might as well have been any other day of the year. Keith only knew that it was a holiday because he didn't have school and the library was closed. He'd finished his book the night before, so he was debating whether or not he liked it enough to warrant a rereading when there was a commotion downstairs. Following the noise, Keith was surprised to discover that there was a social worker there with a box of presents. The other kids were already crowding around the toys, so Keith hung towards the back and waited for there to be an opening in the throng. As he waited, he saw a book that was being ignored by the other kids fall off the pile and slide towards him. Taking it as a sign from Fate, he grabbed the book and retreated to his bed before the rest of the kids had finished fighting over who got what.

When he sat on his bed, Keith looked at the cover for the first time. _The Princess Bride_. He was fairly sure that he'd heard some of his classmates quoting this book before, so he was intrigued to see what the fuss was about.

By the time the first new toy had been broken, Keith was hooked. The book's sense of humor was so similar to his own, and it was the perfect escape from his own dreary reality.

 **5 years, 317 days**

As a twelve-year-old with no soul-tat, Keith continued to be ostracized. He'd been kicked out of one school after another, and shifted from foster home to foster home. The bullying managed to follow him everywhere, though.

The bullies were never obvious about it, but they were consistent. Keith walked the school hallways to the sounds of taunts and hissed snide remarks.

"Poor friendless boy." "No one likes him – he doesn't even have a soul-tat!" "I've heard that if you don't have a soul-tat by the time you're twelve that means that you're destined to be alone forever."

"That's probably why his parents died – even they didn't want to be around him."

There was nothing you could do to earn the wrath of an orphan quicker than by bringing up their dead parents. Keith saw red and turned around in a flurry, throwing his fist into the face of the commenter. His target didn't have a chance to react, but he had a lackey who was paying better attention and punched Keith in retaliation. The blow to his gut only made Keith angrier, and he launched himself at the lackey as well. The lackey landed a few more punches but Keith was proud to notice that he'd bloodied the other guy much more than he felt bloodied himself as they were pulled apart.

Of course, the annoying duo had been from the popular kids group while Keith was a loner so he was blamed for the whole ordeal. He'd had enough experience with this kind of thing in previous schools that he knew arguing would be futile. He simply hunched his shoulders and followed the teacher – he recognized his science teacher, Mr Hedrick – away from the scene. Mark this up as another failed attempt at a school, and he likely would be sent away to a new foster family as well once they heard.

To his surprise, though, Mr Hedrick didn't take him to the front office. They entered his own office and he gestured to Keith to sit down. Keith was wary, but Mr Hedrick didn't launch into questions or a lecture like Keith expected. Instead, the teacher leaned down to examine the cuts on Keith's face and hands before bandaging them up. Keith definitely hadn't expected that – he could bandage himself up just fine so he wasn't sure what to do when someone else did that for him.

"Have you ever played soccer?" Mr Hedrick asked after he finished cleaning Keith up.

That definitely wasn't the first question Keith had expected, so he only blinked in response. Mr Hedrick put away his first aid kit and sat at his desk.

"I'll take that as a no. Would you like to join my team? We practice here at the school after classes, so you would be welcome to join."

Keith wasn't sure why he was offering this, but he was intrigued. He was never invited to join things, he wondered what it would be like.

"Uh, sure," he responded.

Mr Hedrick smiled. "I'm glad you're willing to join us – we could use a small, fast player like you. But you need to do something for me." Keith deflated – there was always a catch. "I need you to stop pretending like you hate my class and actually try to learn something."

That hadn't been the catch that Keith expected. "Uh, sure," he repeated, not really knowing what else to say. It wasn't that he didn't like his science class, he just knew that it wasn't permanent. Nothing was in his life.

 **5 years, 237 days**

At the end of the year, Keith was moved to another new family and this meant that he wouldn't be going to the same school. On his last day, Mr Hedrick held him back after the final bell.

"I have something for you," he said, guiding Keith to his office and gesturing for him to sit down once they entered. Mr Hedrick also sat, and Keith wondered what was going to happen. He had come to like Mr Hedrick – he was the only thing Keith would miss about this school.

"Keith, I'm so proud of the progress you made these past few months," he started. "I can tell how much you've been enjoying my class and soccer practices – I want to encourage you to continue to appreciate that passion. If you go through life hating everything then you'll miss out on the chance to really love something."

Keith wasn't entirely sure what to do with that bit of wisdom, so he just nodded.

Mr Hedrick smiled. "And to remind you of that, here – this is for you." He reached down and pulled a brand new soccer ball out from behind his desk. Keith's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. No one had given him anything just because they wanted to since his parents were alive. He reached out tentatively to grab the present, sure that Mr Hedrick would pull it back and change his mind any second.

That never happened, though, and Keith had the ball in his lap. He couldn't quite form the words to thank his teacher and coach, but Mr Hedrick seemed to be able to read his face.

"Remember – it's ok to enjoy things. Practice up over the summer – I don't want to hear that you've been slacking off from your next coach."

Keith promised that he would, and Mr Hedrick shook his hand with a smile and a "Good luck". Keith held the ball reverently in his hands as he left the school, only pausing to take it out of the box as he passed a trash can. Once outside, it was a beautiful day so rather than head back to his foster house he walked to the park that had soccer goals set up. He dropped his backpack on the sideline and started running up and down the field with his (!) ball. He enjoyed the feeling of the sun and wind and promptly forgot about his personal problems for a little while.

 **5 years, 147 days**

Different school, same routine. Keith joined a soccer team that played all year round and discovered that everyone both on his team and in his classes already had friend groups formed so he was back to his books. He did enjoy seeing the faces his coach and teammates made when he brought book after book to practice for him to read before practice started.

 **4 years, 364 days**

His birthday was now past, and not a single person had acknowledged it. Keith decided that he didn't want friends anymore. He was fine on his own – he had soccer and his books, that was enough.

* * *

His coach held him back at the start of practice to let Keith know that he was being shifted to yet another foster family and they were coming to meet him after practice. He sighed and nodded. As long as he could keep playing soccer, he didn't much care about where he would be going next.

Only 4 years and 76 days until he aged out of the foster system and was finally free…


	3. If Ever I Try to Push Away

**If Ever I Try to Push Away You Can Just Keep Me There**

"Is this Keith Park?"

The voice on the other line wasn't familiar to Keith, neither was the phone number. It was from his adopted parents' area code, though, so he had answered without second thought.

"Yes," he responded, covering his other ear so that he could hear the voice as he got on the bus. His other teammates were still celebrating their win over their rival, so he walked straight to the back of the bus where it was at least marginally quieter.

"Good afternoon, Mr Park. I am Amelia, from Dignity Heath Hospital in Chandler. You're listed as one of the emergency contacts for a Mr Akira and a Mrs Maiko Shirogane?"

Keith felt his blood chill. "Yeah, they're my parents."

"There's really no good way to say this, Mr Park, but I'm afraid your parents were in a car accident. It appears that there was something on the road and that caused your father to lose control of the car and crash into the road's median. They're both awake right now, but I'm afraid it doesn't look good and at their age I doubt they'll make it through the night."

Keith's eyes filled but he schooled his voice to remain calm. "Thank you for calling me. Has my brother been told?"

Amelia's voice softened. "Yes, I called Mr Shirogane right before I called you." Keith felt the tears start to fall. "Your parents are in the ICU now, if you wish to visit them. Tell the front desk who you are and if they give you any trouble about visiting hours then send them to me."

"Thank you," Keith repeated softly, bidding her good bye and hanging up. Immediately, he called Shiro.

"I'm driving to pick you up now," Shiro answered in lieu of a greeting. "How far out are you?"

"We're pulling out now," Keith said, cursing the catch in his voice. Shiro sounded so calm, and here he was falling apart. "It'll be an hour."

"Perfect," Shiro responded. "I'll meet you at the practice facility."

Keith agreed and hung up, unsure of what to do with himself. He wanted to go up front and force the bus driver to drive faster, but there was traffic so that would just annoy the driver and make Keith angrier. Instead, he put his headphones in and listened to music on the highest volume he could stand while not being painful. It helped keep his thoughts from running down a slippery slope as he stared out the window.

Lance looked around about half way through their drive and noticed that Keith still hadn't joined in the celebration. He frowned – usually Keith would stick to himself for the first portion of a drive but then he would join the group and mingle. Today, he was nowhere to be seen.

The rest of the team was playing a card game so Lance ducked away and walked back to find where his soulmate was hiding. He had to walk to the very last row, and when he got there Keith was facing out the window and Lance could hear his music from where he was standing. He didn't want to startle him, but Lance didn't know how else to get Keith's attention so he reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Keith stiffened but didn't turn, so Lance sat down determined to wait until Keith was ready.

It only took a minute before Keith hit pause on his music and turned to face Lance. That was when Lance could see the tear tracks running down Keith's face.

"Are you ok?" Lance asked tentatively. And immediately felt stupid – of course Keith wasn't ok. He had never seen the man cry in the entire year and a half that they'd known each other. Keith just shook his head, opening his mouth before closing it right back up. "Is it your brother?" Keith shook his head. "Your parents?" Keith looked down, nodding. Lance reached out to put his hand on Keith's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Keith took a few deep breaths to get his vocal chords to behave. "Can you ask Coach if I can leave my car at the practice facility?" he asked quietly. "Shiro's picking me up from there."

"Sure thing," Lance promised, giving his shoulder a squeeze before walking forward to find Coran. He was in the first row, looking at game footage his phone and mumbling to himself as he planned for their next game.

"Hey, Coran, can I ask you something?" Coran looked up from his phone at the sound of Lance's voice and his face lightened.

"Of course, my boy! Sit down, what can I help you with?"

Lance sat and lowered his voice. "Something's happened with Keith's parents. His brother is going to pick him up when we get back, so can he leave his car at the practice facility until he gets back?"

Coran frowned. "Of course, that is not a problem at all. Is it serious?"

Lance shrugged. "I think so? I'm going to go back and sit with him so I'll let you know if there's anything else."

Coran nodded. "Thank you, Lance."

Lance returned to Keith and saw that he hadn't put his headphones back in yet. "Hey – Coran said that you're fine leaving your car there."

Keith nodded his thanks and returned to looking out the window. Lance wasn't sure how to comfort him, so he stayed there and debated whether Keith would prefer an arm around the shoulders or just holding a hand. Before he could decide between the two, Keith's head landed on Lance's shoulder. Lance took that as a cue to wrap an arm around his shoulders. He wasn't sure how to help, but he hoped that his friend found at least some comfort in him being there.

Keith had closed his eyes as he leaned against Lance, and when Lance didn't seem to be uncomfortable he kept them closed until the bus pulled into the practice facility parking lot. Keith saw Shiro's car and shot up. He gathered his headphones together but was stopped when he went to reach for his bag. Lance held it out to him, and gave him a smile before he left to gather his own things together. Keith was the first one off the bus and practically sprinted to Shiro who enveloped him in a hug.

"It's ok, I'm here," Shiro promised as Keith hid his face and the tears that started falling again. They stood like that a moment before Keith remembered that he needed his bag from under the bus and dreaded walking back to his teammates like this. Before he could break away from Shiro, though, Shiro pulled back and Keith saw Lance walking over with Keith's bag.

"Hey, Shiro," Lance said as he neared them both. "Sorry to hear that something happened with your parents – I hope you're alright." Shiro nodded his thanks and Lance turned to Keith. "Here's your bag. Text me when you get there?"

"I will," Keith promised. "Thanks for everything, Lance."

"It's no problem," Lance assured him. "Drive safe."

Keith put his things in Shiro's car and they both got in. "Are you ok not stopping by your apartment?" Shiro asked as he started the car and got ready to pull out of the lot.

"Yeah," Keith assured him. "Let's go."

Lance watched Shiro's car drive off and wished that there was more he could do. He settled for texting Pidge and letting her know that her roommate wouldn't be back for at least the night.

 **Lancelot** : Hey Pidge, something happened with Keith's parents so he won't be there tonight.  
 **Pidgeot** : Gotcha, thanks for letting me know. Anything I can do?  
 **Lancelot** : I'll let you know.

They weren't even out of California before Keith had to speak again. "Shiro, I'm sorry. I'm a mess and you have to worry about me but they're not even my real parents–"

"I'm going to have to stop you right there," Shiro interrupted Keith. "What do you mean they're not your real parents?"

Keith looked at his hands in his lap. "I mean, they're your real parents and they just kinda took me in but now I'm the one crying and–"

Shiro shook his head. "Keith, right now I'm focusing on getting us to Chandler before it's too late," he said, voice cracking slightly on the last word. "So I'm not going to get in to the myriad of ways that you're very wrong in thinking like that. You're my brother – you have been since we met. If they're not your real parents, then does that make me not your real brother?"

"No," Keith said, seeing where Shiro was going with this.

"Then stop thinking that way and get ready to drive because I'm tired and want a break."

* * *

Fortunately, they were not too late. Unfortunately, Amelia's prediction had been spot on. The Shiroganes hadn't been young when Shiro was born, so they weren't young when Keith came along either. Both Keith and Shiro had known that this day was coming, but that didn't make it any easier.

After, they returned to their parent's apartment. It was dark and Shiro didn't seem to have the desire to do anything. So Keith took over. He steered Shiro to the couch and sat him down, forcing him to drop the bags he had been carrying. Even though it was three in the morning, they hadn't eaten much more than snack food in the past twelve hours so Keith went in to the kitchen to get them both dinner.

The frozen pizza was in the oven when Shiro next spoke. "Keith, your bag is vibrating."

Keith frowned as he walked over, wondering who would be texting him. When he saw the name, he immediately felt guilty. "Quiznak," he swore, making Shiro snort.

"You still say that?"

"Yeah," Keith replied, unlocking his phone. "It's not a swear so I won't get in trouble with my coach when I use it." When he opened the text thread, there were multiple messages and Keith felt even guiltier – he hadn't looked at his phone all evening.

 **The Tailor** : Hey, did you make it?  
 **The Tailor** : Hello?  
 **The Tailor** : I'm going to assume you did because I don't want to worry.  
 **The Tailor** : I hope everything's alright.  
 **Star Boy** : Hey, sorry, I didn't have my phone near me for most of the afternoon. We made it.  
 **The Tailor** : I'm glad. Everything ok?  
 **Star Boy** : …no.  
 **The Tailor** : Ugh, I'm sorry. Life sucks sometimes. If you need anything, I'm here.  
 **Star Boy** : Thanks, Lance.

The kitchen timer started beeping so Keith moved to take out the pizza and sat down with it next to Shiro on the couch. Shiro had grabbed a family photo album and was flipping through the pages with a small smile. Keith joined in, and they ate and reminisced until they both fell asleep.

When Keith woke up, the whole apartment felt surreal. He could almost forget that the previous night had happened.

Almost.

Shiro went to the hospital that morning, but Keith couldn't bring himself to join. Shiro came back with a small box – his mother's glasses, his father's watch, and their wedding rings. They were both tense, and Keith didn't know what to say to make the tension go away. Shiro held up his mom's ring with a pensive look on his face.

"I'm sure Allura will like it," Keith said as he cleared out the kitchen. They both had pots and pans and things, so those were headed to the donation center. Shiro turned bright red and Keith laughed. "Especially when you tell her that it was mom's – she'll think it's perfect."

Shiro put that ring back but then held out another to Keith. "Well, then you can give dad's to Lance. I'm sure he'll like it too."

Keith felt his face light on fire and ducked behind the counter to get more things out of the cabinets. Shiro laughed at him and like that the strange tension was broken. They were both still sad, but as they cleaned out the apartment they were able to laugh and remember the good times rather than brooding on the bad.

That evening, Keith and Shiro were haggling over who got what out of the library of books and movies that their parents had when Keith's phone buzzed again.

 **The Tailor** : When are you getting back?  
 **Star Boy** : Tomorrow – can you let coach know that I'll be back to practice on Monday?  
 **The Tailor** : Sure thing.

In the end, Keith had to give up the series of their favorite TV show to watch together, but he did get the entire Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler book collection so he counted it as a win. When Keith had moved to college, their parents hadn't needed the house anymore so they moved to a smaller apartment. The benefit of this was that it meant the job of clearing it out was made much easier on Keith and Shiro this weekend, and they were done before they left to go back to California. Even still, Keith found himself feeling morose as they drove away for the last time.

Lance wanted to do something for Keith, so he texted Pidge to let him in to their apartment on Sunday. When she opened the door, she looked confused.

"Keith isn't back yet," she told him as he walked inside.

"I know," Lance replied. "I still want to do something for him.

"Whatever," Pidge responded, gathering her books together. "I have to go work on a lab, don't burn the building down."

He waved at her as she left, and then got to work. He knew that Keith liked his mom's empanadas, he ate them every time Lance shared leftovers, so he got to work on a fresh batch.

He had finished the first batch and the second was five minutes from completion when Pidge returned, bringing Hunk along. "We're going to bake cookies," she declared, kicking Lance out of the kitchen. He conceded, packing up the empanadas to store in the fridge.

When Keith entered his apartment, there was a lot more noise and movement than he had been anticipating. The oven timer was going off, Pidge told Lance to get out of her way, and Hunk said that he needed to open the oven door. All the chaos meant that they didn't realize Keith had entered, so he took advantage of the opening to slip into his room. He dropped the box of books and things next to his bed, not wanting to deal with that just yet. Instead, he changed into comfier clothes and wandered back to the main room to see if he could claim the game system before anyone else did.

The kitchen was still loud enough that he managed to get the system turned on and his favorite game started before anyone else realized he was there. When they did, it was because Keith swore at the game while there was a lull in sound coming from their efforts.

"Keith!" Pidge yelled, launching herself at him on the couch. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Hey Pidge," he greeted her back, pausing his game so he could wrap his arms around her. "You all were being loud in the kitchen – I've been here for a half hour already."

"Blame Lance for that," she told him, not letting go.

"Hey!" Lance objected. "I was trying to make him empanadas!"

"Well Hunk and I made him cookies," Pidge retorted.

"I'm the only one making cookies right now," Hunk clarified from the kitchen. That made Pidge let go, she didn't want to be robbed of her credit for the aid in cookie creation so she ran back to the kitchen. Lance took her spot on the couch next to Keith.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Keith sighed and shook his head. "Not right now." He still had to deal with a second set of parents dying. But as he looked around at his friends they were all comforting him without treating him like glass, and he already felt himself feeling better just listening to the banter and normalcy. "But I will be."


	4. But You Are Keeping Up

Lance got on the bus and saw Keith moving to sit at the very back. He frowned – that's what Keith did every time they had a trip to an away match. Lance wanted to know what his soulmate's story was, but they had only known each other for two months. Though they were romantic soulmates, Lance really didn't want to scare Keith off by prodding into his life so early in their friendship. He let Keith brood for the ride to the match, but on the way back he took matters into his own hands.

Keith got on the bus and made his way to the back like usual, but after he sat down Lance sank into the seat next to him and gave him a smile. Keith watched, confused, as Lance put one headphone in and leaned back, perfectly at ease with simply sitting next to Keith instead of chatting with other teammates closer to the front of the bus. He wasn't sure why Lance would sit in the back with him, but Keith supposed that it was Lance's choice and didn't say anything.

Neither of them did until Keith pulled out his phone to change the song playing and Lance saw his lock screen. Lance snorted, and Keith looked up at the noise. "What?"

"You like Beast King?" Lance asked, gesturing to the phone.

Keith looked down at his phone and shrugged. "My brother was really into it, so he got me into it," he explained.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, my sister tried to do that with me, but it didn't work. I enjoyed the episodes I watched, but I didn't get hooked. I'm more of a Star Wars guy."

Keith just smirked and unlocked his phone to reveal a Star Wars picture as his background. Lance gasped and grabbed the phone out of his hands, gaping at the picture – it was of Keith with a glowing red lightsaber and using the Force to levitate rocks all around him.

"Oh my goodness, this is beautiful. How did you make that costume? Or get those rocks to float like that?"

"I didn't, my brother's soulmate did. She's an artist – that's a drawing."

Lance couldn't believe it, he stared closer at the screen. Maybe if he looked really closely at Keith's face he could tell, but that could also have been distortion from the screen. "I don't believe you." Keith took his phone back and pulled up a picture – it was the background but this time Lance could see the edges of the paper.

"Huh," he replied. "Well she's amazing. And since I'm now holding your phone," he continued, with a smirk, "time to see what I'm saved as in your phone!"

Keith merely watched him poke around and Lance wondered at his lack of urgency. Had Keith really never had anyone mess with his contacts before? Well he was about to learn – Lance quickly moved to his contacts list. He heaved a sigh – everyone in here was saved as their names, how boring. Except for his brother who was – unimaginatively – 'Big Bro'. Well this was about to change.

Pidge became 'Gremlin Soulmate'. Big Bro turned into 'Space Soulmate'. Lance was, obviously, 'Best Soulmate Ever'. He did give himself a moment to enjoy the fact that, while Keith hadn't done anything special with the name, he had attached the picture of Lance's soul-tat to be the contact picture. He had considered taking a selfie, but decided to leave it as is.

When Lance gave Keith his phone back, Keith scrolled through to see what he had done. He immediately saw what Lance had done to his own name and feigned ignorance. "Why did you change Shiro's name?"

Lance smirked, but the smile dropped off his face when Keith pointed to the contact that said 'Best Soulmate Ever'. "That's not Shiro!" Lance replied indignantly.

Keith shrugged. "I mean, that's who I would assume it would be. Is that Pidge, then?"

Keith laughed when Lance threw his hands in the air and snatched back the phone, muttering to himself. He typed a few things and then handed the phone back again. Keith saw that Shiro was back to Big Bro, he assumed that 'Gremlin Soulmate' was supposed to be Pidge, and then he saw Lance's picture on a contact for 'The Tailor'.

"The Tailor?" he asked, looking at Lance.

"Yeah! For how I thread the needle," he said, winking at Keith.

Keith only looked back at him blankly. "You sew?"

Lance briefly wondered if his soulmate was real. "No – like slang. Shooting a ball through a tight gap in the defenders is like threading a needle."

And now Keith looked confused. "But you are a defender, Lance."

Lance less-briefly wondered if his soulmate was real. "It's… never mind."

Keith shrugged and returned to his music. Lance let him, celebrating his victory in his head. He had gotten Keith to talk, he joked even, and learned something about the guy. It was a good bus ride.

* * *

The next away trip, Lance brought a teammate back with him when he went to sit with Keith. "Hey Keith, did you know that Rax here also watched Beast King?"

Keith and Rax looked at each other like they had found a life raft and immediately launched into a conversation about the show. Lance understood that feeling – when you were really into something and you knew no one else who had even heard of it, finding another fan was like finding the Holy Grail.

* * *

Pretty soon, Lance noticed that Keith would join the rest of the team on the bus rather than sitting by himself the whole time. Lance couldn't help but be proud – he was glad that Keith was starting to feel more comfortable around the team.

Keith is pleasantly surprised to find that he had multiple friends on his team. It was a nice change from his previous teams. Once Lance had informed Rax that Keith watched Beast King, the forward had wasted no time before inviting Keith over to watch with him and his sister, Shay. The trio gathered at Rax's apartment on Sunday mornings to watch and eat breakfast together, and then Keith went to Lance and Hunk's dorm with Pidge on Friday evenings for game night. These weekly plans felt strange to Keith, and he texted Shiro to ask what he should do about them.

 **Big Bro** : This is a good thing, Keith.  
 **Big Bro** : It's called having friends.  
 **Lil Bro** : I've never had those before, Shiro.  
 **Big Bro** : Yes yes, you've led a deprived life. Just go with it, kiddo. You'll be glad you did.

* * *

At the end of the year, Rax was getting ready to graduate and brought Keith and Shay along with him to a party. Neither of them were sure what to do with themselves, but Rax wanted them there to celebrate with him so they joined. They hung with Rax for a little bit, but then he found other friends that he wanted to celebrate with and told them to enjoy themselves. Once alone, Keith and Shay knew even less of what they should do with themselves.

About ten minutes later, a guy came up to Shay and stood too close as he asked if he could get her a drink. Keith saw how uncomfortable Shay looked, so he draped his soul-tat arm around her shoulders and gave the guy a bland smile. Thankfully he wasn't drunk enough that he couldn't take the hint and quickly disappeared back into the crowd.

"Thanks, Keith," Shay breathed once they were alone again.

Keith just smiled at her, leaving his arm so that they didn't have to have a repeat experience. "Hey, just be glad that soul-tats don't have to match like those books that you enjoy. That would make this much more difficult."

She laughed and agreed, and Keith looked at his phone to see the time. "Hey, do you think Rax would be offended if we left? I do a game night with some friends on Fridays, and I'm sure they'd be glad to have you join."

Shay agreed readily, so they sent Rax a text and walked back to the dorms. When they entered the room, Pidge was already there so Keith pulled Shay inside. "Hey guys, this is my friend Shay. Shay, this is Lance and Hunk and Pidge." Shay gave a sweet smile and waved at them all, and Lance scooted over to make space for her to sit between him and Pidge.

As the evening wore on, Keith let himself smile. If only his younger self could see him now – surrounded by friends and arm covered in a soul-tat. He turned out alright.


End file.
